The Ward 5 Wave: A Budget for All of Us
Kimberly Perry, Executive Director of DC Action, and Erica Williams, Executive Director of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, join DC Ward 5 Council member Zachary Parker to discuss the Mayor's proposed FY26 budget. The conversation explores the proposed cuts to countless social services and what this means for District residents.
Foundations donate $1.5M to help restore historic Black church in Memphis gutted by arson
Historic Clayborn Temple had been undergoing a yearslong renovation when someone intentionally set a fire inside the church in the early hours of April 28, destroying almost everything but parts of the facade.
Before the fire, the Romanesque revival church was in the midst of a $25 million restoration project that included restoring a 3,000-pipe grand organ. The project also sought to help revitalize the neighborhood with a museum, cultural programing and community outreach.
Despite the extensive damage, Anasa Troutman, executive director of Historic Clayborn Temple, has said they plan to continue moving forward with the restoration. Troutman announced new donations from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund along with the Mellon and Ford foundations.
Midtown Assistance Center (MAC) receives funding for its food pantry
Midtown Assistance Center received $5,000 in funding from Kroger’s Zero Hunger Zero Waste grant program and was featured on WSB-TC Channel 2 to share about their food pantry, job support and rent/utility assistance programs.
Atlanta’s National Black Arts Festival to have new leader, after 2 key resignations
The National Black Arts Festival (NBAF) will have fresh leadership starting July 1 when Leatrice Ellzy Wright becomes the 38 year old nonprofit’s president and CEO. Ellzy Wright, a Delaware native who’s lived in Atlanta since 1989, is no stranger to the arts. From 2002-2012, she served as NBAF’s program director. She was also the executive director of the Hammonds House before leaving in 2021 to lead programming for the Apollo Theater.
This summer, she’ll move from New York City back to Atlanta for the new role. Established in 1987 by the Fulton County Arts Council, NBAF began as a weeklong, biennial event to celebrate Black art across multiple disciplines. The festival featured artists including Spike Lee, Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou.
Cary, NC Approves Affordable Housing in Church’s Backyard
The Cary Town Council unanimously approved a rezoning application from Greenwood Forest Baptist Church that paves the way for it to build 62 affordable housing units on the church’s property.
The Carr Center, as the building will be called, is a partnership between the church, the housing nonprofit the Carying Place, and the nonprofit housing developer DHIC. The ground floor will house the Greenwood Forest Children’s Center for early childhood education, offices for the Carying Place, and an offshoot of the local YMCA. The upper floors will be affordable apartments for households making 30 to 60 percent of area median income (when rented) or up to 80 percent of AMI (when purchased). Eleven units will be reserved as transitional housing for families experiencing homelessness.
East Atlanta Kids Club is fundraising to send kids whose parents were laid off from CDC to summer camp
“Why wouldn’t you invest in kids and families and, particularly, kids who have less access to opportunity than others through no fault of their own? Kids deserve to have caring adults. They deserve to have quality experiences and opportunities. They deserve to see themselves represented in the good in their community,” said Ryan Downey, executive director of East Atlanta Kids Club.
The organization provides after-school programming, counseling, weekly food distributions and summer camps at no cost.
The 2025 Atlanta Science Festival emphasizes the importance of the arts in their lineup
The 2025 Atlanta Science Festival is returning March 8-22, and several of this year’s events and activities celebrate the time-tested friendship of science and the arts, featuring music, dance, storytelling and more.
“I think the arts have a really fabulous way of drawing people in, keeping them hooked, and getting them to love the thing that they are learning about,” said Meisa Salaita, co-executive director and co-founder of the festival and Science ATL.
National Center for Civil and Human Rights to name new wing for former Mayor Shirley Franklin
The Center surprised the former mayor with this announcement on Thursday, Feb. 27, as part of the annual Power to Inspire Celebration, where Franklin was honored for her lifetime of leadership. The new Shirley Clarke Franklin Pavilion, on the building’s east side, will provide flexible meeting space for classrooms, performances, and events. The wing’s roof will accommodate a new ticketing experience and outdoor event space.
After rocky journey, Atlanta executes two-year PAD contract
Months of unpaid work, a secret procurement process, “philosophical differences” and a brief suspension of services ended Jan. 6 when Atlanta executed a two-year, $5 million contract for community response agency the Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative, or PAD. It’s been a lengthy, troubled process for the long-standing diversion program due to multiple contract issues with existing and future contracts. But with the official contract execution, the organization can commit to at least six more years of its work.
Fulton County cuts arts and culture budget in half
Fulton County’s arts budget was cut by 56% on Wednesday, February 5, 2025. Those same programs receiving roughly $3 million in prior years. “Unfortunately, we’d probably have to scale back. And I pray that we’ll be able to find continuous sources of revenue,” said Alex Acosta, founder of Soul Food Cypher, a non-profit that promotes free-style rap to bring the community together. Acosta last week urged the commission to maintain its funding for arts programs. “We’re keeping the culture alive in the city of Atlanta,” Acosta said in an interview with Atlanta News First on Tuesday. “We lose our flavor, we lose our funk, we lose our soul if we do not invest in the arts,” Acosta said.
The Art of Doing Good: Theater director Heidi Howard prepares teens for life
7 Stages founders Del Hamilton and Faye Allen were interested in further developing Youth Creates, the theater’s youth programming. After hearing how Howard’s experience as a teen was transformative, they put their newest contract employee to the task. Kids who enroll in Youth Creates might end up doing — and loving — something unexpected. Howard points out that students will often think they want to be actors, then find themselves excelling at things like lighting design. For five weeks, teens in the program are able to explore every avenue of a production through various workshops, from marketing to building sets with power tools. Then they apply their new skills to staging the show.
National Center for Civil and Human Rights opens virtual learning portal
In November, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights unveiled its “Learning Portal,” an innovative digital platform that highlights important stories about civil and human rights, while providing open access for teachers to explore key moments and topics in American history. The portal will provide teachers with access to photography, video and artifacts to create lesson plans. Savitt said the portal was beta tested for about nine months with the help of teachers, who vetted all of the data and documents.
Atlanta resident on how Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative transformed his life
On WABE’s “Closer Look,” hear how the wraparound services provided to Atlanta’s unhoused populations through Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD) are making a difference. Former PAD participant David Lee talked candidly about why he feels PAD’s initiative is a God-given program and how it transformed his life.
100 years later, Phyllis Wheatley center in continues to be a beacon for Black community
The organization, now known as the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, began in the midst of the Jim Crow era as a settlement house, one of a number of such places around the country providing services to the urban poor and European immigrants. It offered social services, recreation, culture and a gathering space for adults and children in the North Side’s then small but growing Black community. The center will mark its centennial with a gala in April 2025.
Atlanta's diversion center promises to help and not punish people in crisis. Here's how it will work
The City of Atlanta's new 24/7 Diversion Center in the Atlanta City Detention Center building is now open! Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative (PAD)and Georgia Justice Project will be available on site to connect individuals to long-term services, like case management and warrant resolution.
Grady Health System President and CEO John Haupert said about 14% of individuals in the emergency psychiatric unit are also brought in by police, demonstrating how these are “health care issues, not criminal issues.”
What it takes to lead a nonprofit for 20 years!
In this interview on the Planting Seeds podcast, Kimberly Parker, Executive Director of Central Outreach and Advocacy Center, speaks with host Jeff Hillmire about her journey into a leadership role, imposter syndrome, ways to avoid burnout, and the importance of advocacy for people experiencing homelessness.
Helping Atlantans Buy a Home
On 11Alive News’ Atl&Co, Atlanta Land Trust highlights their ongoing work in helping Atlantans buy a permanently affordable home and find stability in the community of their choice.
Five Atlanta arts figures worth watching
Atlanta magazine has named five stars to in music, theater, and more that are influencing Atlanta and Alex Acosta, founder of Soul Food Cypher is among the five named. Founded in 2012, Initially intending to help children labeled “at risk” through photojournalism classes, Acosta noticed that they best expressed themselves outside of class, in “cyphers”—collaborative circles of rap, hip-hop, and freestyle meant to uplift participants and tell their stories. In October, Soul Food Cypher will bring back the ATL Park Jam, an event with the BeltLine to highlight the vibrant role hip-hop has played in the city’s culture.
‘Carrot versus stick’: Could developers be enticed to maintain affordable housing?
As North Carolina grapples with a growing affordable housing shortfall, a federal lawmaker is hoping new “carrot” incentives could entice developers to preserve the state’s current stock for longer. The Keep Housing Affordable Act, recently introduced by U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-Cary), would extend an optional affordability period for low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) projects up to 50 years.
Yolanda C. Winstead is president of DHIC Inc., a Triangle affordable housing developer. It’s behind projects like Broadstone Walk, a new 164-unit affordable housing complex along South Hughes Street in Apex. She welcomed the new legislation. “We need as many tools as possible,” she told The N&O in an email. “If passed, DHIC would look into this incentive on a case-by-case basis.” But she also remained realistic. “There is no single solution to the housing crisis.”
Atlanta Film Society executive director Christopher Escobar revives historic theaters
In 2010, the Atlanta Film Society was at risk of folding. Christopher Escobar volunteered to join the board. Soon, he became executive director.